Mental Health Care in the African-American Community

Over the course of an African American's lifetime, mental health care needs change according to an individual's unique interactions with his or her environment. Mental Health Care in the African-American Community uses this perspective to provide a deeper analysis of factors and issues affecting the mental health of African Americans. This comprehensive text provides a current and historical analysis of the impact of mental health research, policy, community, and clinical practice from a life course perspective. Stressing evidence-based practice as an expanded way to think and talk about individualizing and translating evidence into a given practice situation, this valuable book provides a social work context for all helping professions.

Mental Health Care in the African-American Community provides the helping community with non-traditional, expanded ways of thinking and intervening in the mental health needs and care of African Americans. Organized logically, this complex subject presents data in a user-friendly way that engages the reader, and provides chapter summaries and suggested group/classroom activities to facilitate understanding. This text is extensively referenced and includes figures and tables to clearly illustrate data.

Topics in Mental Health Care in the African-American Community include:

• a historical overview of African Americans' mental health care
• a conceptual and theoretical framework for African Americans' mental health
• current issues affecting mental health intervention for African Americans
• mental health in group homes and foster care
• depression
• substance abuse
• poverty
• ADHD
• suicide
• mental health in elderly African Americans
• mental health policy
• rural African American mental health needs
• kinship care
• multiethnic families and children
• much, much more!

Mental Health Care in the African-American Community is a valuable textbook for practitioners; administrators; researchers; policymakers; educators; and students in social work, psychology, mental health services, case management, and community planning.

About the Editors. Contributors. Foreword. Acknowledgments. Introduction. PART I: A Historical Overview and Contextual Factors. Chapter 1. African-American Mental Health: A Historical Perspective. Chapter 2. A Conceptual and Theoretical Framework for Understanding African-American Mental Health. Chapter 3. Mental Health Intervention and the Black Community. PART II: Mental Health Interventions for Current Issues Impacting the Black Community. Chapter 4. Mental Health Services in Group Homes and Foster Care Services. Chapter 5. African-American Women and Depression: The Intersection of Race and Gender. Chapter 6. Mental Health Challenges for Incarcerated African-American Women. Chapter 7. Prevalence of Substance Abuse Within the African-American Community: Mental Health Implications and Interventions. PART III: The Consumers of Mental Health Services over the Life Course. Chapter 8. Poverty, Special Education, and ADHD. Chapter 9. War on African-American Girls: Overcoming Adversities. Chapter 10. Suicide and Young African-American Males. Chapter 11. Social Supports of Elderly African Americans with Mental Health Concerns. PART IV: Mental Health Research, Policy Initiatives, and Evidence-Based Practice. Chapter 12. Conceptualizing Soul As a Mental Health Resource in the Black Community. Chapter 13. Mental Health Policy: Implications for African Americans. Chapter 14. Rural African-American Families and Their Mental Health Needs: South Carolina As an Exemplar. Chapter 15. Kinship Care As a Mental Health Intervention for African-American Families. Chapter 16. Mental Health Needs of Multiethnic Families and Children. PART V: Implications for an Integrated, Holistic Approach to Mental Health Services. Chapter 17. African-American Males and the Rites of Passage Experience. Chapter 18. African-American Women: Mental Health and HIV/AIDS. Chapter 19. Counseling African-American Students at a Predominately White University: The Role of Stereotype Threat. Chapter 20. Understanding Mental Health Conditions: An African-Centered Perspective. Epilogue. The Healing Spirit of Our Ancestors: A Look Toward the Future. Index.